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Caught in time

Water speed record bid ends in tragedy, 1967

Donald Campbell was the archetypal English sporting gent - handsome, well-spoken, dapper and fearless. A heroic figure. He smashed a host of world records on land and water, and when he got to Coniston Water in November 1966, he was determined to become the first man to crack the 300mph barrier.

At the end of 1964 in Western Australia, he had recorded an average speed of 276.33mph; earlier the same year, he became the fastest man on four wheels with 429mph on the salt flats of Lake Eyre in South Australia. He wanted to build a rocket car to smash the land speed record, but needed to raise the money for this hugely expensive project, hence his attempt to better his own water speed record. Travelling at 300mph on water was unknown territory, but if anybody could do it, that person was Donald Campbell, son of Sir Malcolm Campbell, who also